A #poem for #adjuncts: Waifs and Strays by Arthur Rimbaud

#PAD/s usually go to plog (short for poetry blog) & @PWPicnic…this one seemed somehow so right for here. Alors, sont-nous aussi les enfants de la rue dans notre malchance d'être ainsi abandonnés? More later on the serious stuff of actions, news, events, reminders, conferences (not to be confused with action), links, petitions and such.

Waifs and Strays by Arthur Rimbaud translated by Jethro Bithell Black in the fog and in the snow, Where the great air-hole windows glow, With rounded rumps, Upon their knees five urchins squat, Looking down where the baker, hot, The thick dough thumps. They watch his white arm turn the bread, Ere through an opening flaming red The loaf he flings. They hear the good bread baking, while The chubby baker with a smile An old tune sings. Breathing the warmth into their soul, They squat around the red air-hole, As a breast warm. And when, for feasters' midnight bout, The ready bread is taken out, In a cake's form; And while beneath the blackened beams, Sings every crust of golden gleams, While the cricket brags, The hole breathes warmth into the night, And into them life and delight, Under their rags, And the urchins covered with hoar-frost, On billows of enchantment tossed Their little souls, Glue to the grate their little rosy Noses, singing through the cosy Glowing holes, But with low voices like a prayer, Bending down to the light down there, Where heaven gleams. --So eager that they burst their breeches, And in the winter wind that screeches Their linen streams. Read "Les Effarés"in original French + explication Today's poem is in the public domain. About this poem: "Waifs and Strays" is a translation of Rimbaud's "Les Effarés." Arthur Rimbaud was born October 20, 1854. Today is his birthday. Poetry by Arthur Rimbaud Rimbaud Complete  translated by Wyatt Mason October 20, 2012 A volatile and peripatetic poet, the prodigy Arthur Rimbaud wrote all of his poetry in a space of less than five years.  Also by Rimbaud Antique Hellish Night A Season in Hell Related Poems Hustlers with Bad Timing by D. A. Powell Spleen by Charles Baudelaire The Triumph of Time by Algernon Charles Swinburne Poem-A-Day started as a National Poetry Month program in 2006, delivering daily poems from newly-published poetry titles. Due to popular demand, Poem-A-Day became a year-round program in 2010, featuring original, never-before-published poems by contemporary poets on weekdays, and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day archive for selections since 2010.

Academy of American Poets | 75 Maiden Lane | Suite 901 | New York | NY | 10038

#CEW Cookbook: Spice up #TeachIns

Not part of #CEW2011, but organized by UNM's Peace Studies Program to support #OWS and supplement 'burque's iteration, activities planned for this event certainly could be adapted for Campus Equity Week. Teach-ins and poetry. Lectures to livestreamed. Video night. I wouldn't be surprised to hear live about live music being added, especially with slam and hip-hop already on the bill. The overall structure is familiar: added performance elements spice it up, and livestreaming delivers it to a larger audience.

Adjuncts and contingent faculty scheduling non-violence training might give admin pause though. OK scratch that one. Teach-in topics as listed do not directly address higher ed issues, let alone confront contingency. Although no faculty speakers are specifically identified as adjuncts, some could be. Members of G.E.T., the UNM graduate student employees organization will be filling some slots. 

But is she qualified for a full-time position?

It's no longitudinal study about adjuncts' effects on retention or transfer rates, but in this article the country's Poet Laureate, Kay Ryan, a long-time adjunct, provides some compelling testimony and at least one illustrious example of such unquantifiable "quality of education" factors as dedication, concern, and all-around excellence.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/10/21/ryan